U.S. Competitiveness to Decline, Say Harvard Business School Graduates

By Alan Murray

More than 70% of the graduates of Harvard Business School believe U.S. competitiveness will decline in the next three years.

In a survey released in Davos, the alumni said they felt the American economy’s strengths — entrepreneurialism, innovation, great universities, strong property rights and strong management — would be more than offset by its weaknesses: a tax code unfriendly to business, burdensome regulatory and legal systems, a weak K-12 education system and a dysfunctional political system.

The survey included 10,000 of the school’s 78,000 graduates. Respondents said they had been involved in more than 500 decisions to move facilities now located inside the U.S. to other countries in recent years, but only 70 decisions to move facilities outside the country back in.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter said many of the companies moved out “because they can’t find the skills they need in America.”

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